Life and Times of the Half Blood Prince
by aristotlethesecound
Summary: Severus Snape refused to bow to the desires of his peers. He was a brilliant student, one who would play an instrumental role in the future of the wizarding world, this is how he got there.


**Hi every one, I told myself that I would never ASK for reviews because that is desperate and does not come off so well but in the two reviews I got on my first story (Stranded- you should check it out) I discovered that I kind of like getting reviews so I'm going to say it: Please Read and Review.**

The Life and Times of the Half Blood Prince

_Chapter 1_

The ride through muggle London was a quiet solemn affair; as happy as his mother was that her son was heading off to Hogwarts she was forced to see things the way her husband did. In his view this trip to Diagon Alley would forever part Severus from the safety and normalcy of the 'real world' as he like to call it. The couple had fought long and hard but in the end Severus settled it for them. Instinctive magic saw them silenced for hours after their yelling broke through into the world of their talented son. That decided it; Severus Snape would go to Hogwarts, and nothing more was said about it. In fact, on Severus's part nothing was even said in the first place.

Severus had two great loves as he prepared to go to Hogwarts: music and the dark. Brilliant he might have been but his interests lay in the cave like room that he filled with instruments: piano, violin, flute, trumpet, he played them all. And as the house bubbled over with the excitement of leaving he was faced with a daunting decision, what instrument should he bring? This forced choice was one of the few things his parents agreed on; there was no way that there son would play music for a living. He had so much more potential, why waste it on something so … trivial. So on the night before he departed Severus stood in the center of his room and turned in a circle, this was his life, his love, his music and he had to choose. He moved around the room, packing up and covering each instrument until only two were left, his violin and the piano. In moments the violin to was packed up but instead of relegated to a closet it settled in to the trunk lying open at the end of his bed, a trunk that he closed and moved to the door. Then he sat down at the piano and played. It was a soft goodbye that faded away into the welcoming dark of the night.

When Severus boarded the train he looked back on a platform he looked back on a sea of unrecognizable faces. His parents had not even been awake to see him off as he called a taxi earlier that morning and he had delivered himself to the train. The ride turned out to be a rather disappointing event. His peers turned out to be unwilling to make conversation and believed themselves to be superior to the greasy haired musician with the soft voice and quiet opinion.

The boat ride up to the castle was long and awkward, most people having made at least passing acquaintances they were comfortable talking to while Severus had spent his journey reading the complete Shakespearian sonnets but as he walked into the hall he finally felt like he could enjoy Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with its arcing ceilings and old architecture. His name fell near the end of the sorting and while the other students waiting around him grew more and more anxious as time went on Severus felt more and more grounded in his position. He had no bravery preferring to avoid and trick rather than confront and fight, he was not a Griffindor. He had talent, his music was a great skill and one he was quite proud of, he was not a Hufflepuff. He was intelligent, brilliant and a quick learner, perhaps he was a Ravenclaw. But he was also cunning and arrogant, ready to trick, deceive and steal anything he wanted, perhaps he was a Slytherin. When he walked up to the three legged stool and sat with the sorting hat on his head he did not think at all he was simply listening. To the logic and twisted mind of the hat that held so much power and though the hat normally taunted the students it was sorting it did not say a word to Severus for in his mind he found a great and terrible potential. And as the sorting hat made up its mind it knew that it was deciding the fate of many students to come. "Better be … Slytherin." Severus smiled slightly and walked over to the long table filled with silver and green. There was half hearted clapping but even the arrogant Slytherins felt intimidated by the boy walking towards them. Severus sat down and smiled, he could work with this.


End file.
